People often use the end of a year as a period of reflection and a chance to make goals for the upcoming year. Most look to Jan. 1 as the beginning of a new life. Resolutions are often the focus of starting fresh.
While making a “2016 to-do list,” here are some things to help get the New Year off to a great start.
Do a personal year in review
Look back on where you’ve been and appreciate all of the accomplishments you’ve made in the past year. Ask yourself, what went well for you? How did you improve your life? What did you remove from your life that now makes you happier? What do you wish you would’ve done differently?
Finish your checklist
Which projects, errands and general list of to-do items do you have left over from the previous year that you can complete in two hours or less? Do them now to clear your mind of the old items and to give yourself a fresh start.
Determine and respect your core values
When you identify your core values around things like quiet time, work, health, family and friends, it’s easier to make optimal decisions that will help you find happiness. Experts say unhappiness is often the result of making decisions that don’t support your core values. Making poor decisions causes stress, and chronic levels of stress can present physically as excess fat, fatigue, anxiety and diarrhea. No one needs that in the New Year!
Be realistic with resolutions
Dreaming is great, but if you want to accomplish goals in your life, you need to be realistic. Take your dream and start breaking it down into milestones. If you want to work from home, what are the steps you need to take? Break those steps down further so you can create a game plan and start working toward accomplishing that dream.
Create an environment that fosters your success
You might not even realize to what extent you are influenced — negatively and positively — by things and people around you. Start a journal to keep track of these influences so you can eliminate the negative and increase the positive. For instance, if being around a certain friend always makes you feel discouraged or drained, you should limit time with that person. Also, consider your environment — is your home or office dreary or energizing? Overall, whether it’s gossip from co-workers, violence in the media, pessimism in your own thoughts or other influences, make conscious efforts to reduce your exposure to the negative. You’ll see positive benefits immediately!
Practice the ‘one-day principle’
You can’t delight everybody all the time, but you can do something extraordinary for someone each day. Find a customer, colleague, relative or a friend each day and do something remarkable for them.
Sources: Lifehack.org; bodyandsoul.com; success.com.
